At High-End Vienna, Bowers & Wilkins took the wraps off its flagship 800 Series loudspeakers, which it says are its most “advanced” loudspeakers yet.

The new D5 range marks the fifth generation of Bowers’ 800 series, and its first major loudspeaker launch after Sound United was acquired by Harman.

The new 800 Series Diamond range is made up of seven models, which are:

• Two-way 805 D5 stand-mount
• Three-way 804 D5, 805 D5, 802 D5, 801 D5 floorstanders
• HTM81 D5 and HTM82 D5 centre channels for home theatre use

Bowers & Wilkins describes the new 800 Series Diamond as fusing “acoustic and mechanical excellence with elegant and meaningful design”. The design has been optimised with a new top plate, spine,and plinth, as well as revised drive unit, pods, tweeter body, trim rings and grilles.

All of these design changes are complemented by new finishes, including an all-new dark walnut finish that replaces the option of the satin rosenut in the D5 range, and was inspired by the limited production 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition. Other options include stealth black and warm white.

Acoustic changes are significant. The Space Frame Bracing stiffens the enclosure to reduce unwanted vibration and resonance within the cabinet. All floorstanding models feature a revised aluminium plinth that aims to improve performance to resist unwanted vibration.

The aluminium top plate features thicker aluminium ribbing sections for “greater stiffness” and more mechanical location points to optimise “coupling to the top of the enclosure and revised decoupling mounts to support the Turbine Head or Solid-Body-Tweeter assembly,” improving the mechanical behaviour at the top of each cabinet.

The grille meshes for the Diamond Dome tweeters have designed to be more acoustically transparent, improving off-axis performance and upping the resolution of the sound. Every midrange, bass/midrange and bass drive unit has been given an upgraded with the introduction of lower distortion motor systems for a cleaner, more accurate sound, with better “resolution, transient response and dynamics.”

All the stereo models in the range feature a crossover assembly that’s housed on an all-aluminium plate construction, rigidly coupled into the cabinet and Space Frame Bracing, increasing the stiffness of the cabinet.

Pricing for the new 800 Series Diamond is as follows. Be sure to check you bank account first.

• 801 D5 | £43,000 / $65,000 / €50,000
• 802 D5 | £32,500 / $45,000 / €37,000
• 803 D5 | £25,500 / $35,000 / €30,000
• 804 D5 | £16,000 / $25,000 / €18,000
• 805 D5 | £10,000 / $15,000 / €12,000
• HTM81 D5 | £10,000 / $15,000 / €12,000
• HTM82 D5 | £8,000 / $12,000 / €10,000
• FS-805 D5 | £1,600 / $2,000 / €1,800
• FS-HTM D5 | £1,100 / $1,500 / €1,300

You’ll have to wait a while until you can hear the new series, with availability starting September 9th. If you are at High End Vienna, you’ll be able to at least see them there.

OpenAI is reportedly preparing a major transformation of ChatGPT that could fundamentally change how people interact with artificial intelligence. Instead of remaining primarily a conversational chatbot, the company now wants ChatGPT to evolve into a “super app” powered by AI agents capable of managing tasks across both personal and professional life.

According to a report by the Financial Times, OpenAI executives increasingly believe the future of AI lies not in chatbots that simply answer questions, but in intelligent systems that actively complete tasks for users. The company’s long-term vision reportedly includes AI agents capable of organizing schedules, booking travel, writing software, generating content, and managing workflows across multiple services and platforms.

OpenAI executive Thibault Sottiaux reportedly described the goal as creating a “personal agent” that can help users “across everything in your life.” That vision would allow users to interact with ChatGPT through smartphones, desktops, websites, and potentially even vehicles, turning the platform into a much broader digital assistant ecosystem.

OpenAI is betting big on AI agents and enterprise growth

A major part of the strategy revolves around Codex, OpenAI’s coding-focused platform, which has reportedly grown to more than five million weekly active users. Internally, OpenAI appears increasingly convinced that coding tools and AI agents capable of taking actions on behalf of users could become far more valuable than traditional chatbot interactions.

To support that shift, the company is reportedly redesigning ChatGPT’s mobile and web interfaces to highlight coding, image generation, and integrations with third-party services. Partner applications from companies like Canva and Booking.com may also become more deeply integrated into the ChatGPT experience as OpenAI pushes toward a more connected AI ecosystem.

The changes also reflect mounting pressure inside the AI industry. Competition has intensified rapidly as rivals, including Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google, continue expanding their own AI-powered products and enterprise offerings. While ChatGPT remains one of the world’s most recognizable AI products, OpenAI is under increasing pressure to prove long-term profitability and diversify revenue streams beyond free chatbot usage.

Enterprise customers are becoming especially important to that effort. Reports suggest business-focused products already account for a significant portion of OpenAI’s revenue, and the company is reorganizing internal teams to prioritize enterprise growth over some consumer-oriented initiatives.

ChatGPT may eventually become much more than a chatbot

The broader implication is that OpenAI no longer sees ChatGPT as just a messaging interface. Instead, the company appears to be positioning it as a central operating layer for future AI-powered computing experiences.

If successful, the shift could reshape how users interact with software entirely. Rather than opening separate apps for productivity, communication, coding, travel, scheduling, and search, people may increasingly rely on a single AI assistant capable of handling multiple tasks conversationally and autonomously.

At the same time, OpenAI is also strengthening relationships with policymakers and regulators as AI becomes more politically and economically significant. Reports indicate the company plans to provide the U.S. government with early access to some AI models under a voluntary framework introduced by President Donald Trump. Discussions around potential government stakes in AI companies have also reportedly involved OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as officials explore ways to distribute AI-driven economic gains more broadly.

The overhaul of ChatGPT is reportedly expected to roll out gradually through updates to the app and website in the coming months. If OpenAI succeeds, ChatGPT may soon evolve from a chatbot people occasionally visit into a constantly present AI assistant woven into everyday life.

At 37.7 pounds, it’s just a few pounds heavier than my traditional mountain bike. And yet, with a motor capable of providing 350 watts of assistance expertly hidden in the bottom bracket, the new eElja is anything but a traditional bike.

Over the past decade or so, Icelandic brand Lauf became most well known for its innovative front suspension. Rather than the traditional piston style, Lauf created a suspension system that is almost like two forks connected by a series of small glass fiber springs.

These days, Lauf is venturing into complete bikes, recently rolling out the new eElja electric mountain bike in one of two offerings: the high-end Race build, which boasts carbon wheels, upgraded suspension and groupset, and carbon cranks; and the slightly more modest but still amazing Weekend Warrior build, which has alloy wheels, a high-midrange groupset and suspension, and alloy cranks.

I recently spent a week putting the eElja (pronounced “el-ee-yah”) Race model through its paces and was absolutely blown away by just about everything the bike has to offer. Then again, I kind of expect to be blown away by a bike that retails for more than $8,000. Still, given everything I learned about this bike, both through riding and research, I’d say every penny of that list price would be money well spent.

eElja Race model

Photograph: Michael Venutolo-Mantovani

Weight Watcher

The eElja is fast and nimble on descents, and easy and at home on climbs. It’s responsive where it should be and relaxed when it needs to be. It’s also a damn great-looking bike.

Thanks to a beautiful SRAM Eagle groupset that includes wireless SRAM AXS PODS e-shifting and a wireless RockShox Reverb AXS dropper post, the eElja looks super clean, as it only has two cables (one internally routed), which operate the bike’s brakes. The eElja Race comes out of the box with a RockShox Pike Select+ fork, boasting 140 millimeters of travel, and a 130-mm RockShox Deluxe Select shock in the rear. The Race sits on E*thirteen Optimus Carbon Sidekick, tubeless-ready, six-bolt, XD freehub 29-inch wheels wrapped in Goodyear Escape Max Trail Lite 2.6-inch tires. And both the Race and Weekend Warrior models come with a massive 12-speed cassette, ranging from 10 t to 52 t.

And yet, despite all of the sparkly bells and whistles (all of which are things you’d expect on a bike at this price point), the bike’s lightness is its defining feature. With many e-MTBs tipping the scales in excess of 50 pounds, the eElja’s sub-40-pound weight makes it easily maneuverable on the trail. Perhaps just as important, it makes it a breeze to maneuver off the trail as well in those benign moments we often overlook: loading it onto your bike rack, getting it into your workstand, and even putting it away or taking it out of your quiver. Especially if, like me, you store your bikes on wall hangers.

The UK government will offer to buy AI chips directly from British technology companies in a bid to keep them in the country. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall will outline plans for “strategic purchases” of semiconductor equipment from UK-based firms at London Tech Week this week, the Telegraph reported. The initiative includes access to taxpayer-backed funding and investment in skills to retain workforces in Britain.

The announcement is part of a broader AI hardware plan that targets 5% of the global chip market, which would translate to roughly £37 billion in revenue and tens of thousands of jobs. The government has already committed £100 million through ARIA’s scaling compute programme, including £50 million for a scaling inference lab where British startups can test and demonstrate that their hardware works.

The urgency is clear. Britain keeps losing its best chip companies to foreign buyers. SoftBank acquired Graphcore in 2024. Qualcomm bought Alphawave IP for $2.4 billion last year. Arm, the UK’s most valuable chip designer, chose New York for its main listing in 2023. Each departure weakened the case that Britain can retain a semiconductor industry of its own.

“This is far too important a technology to depend entirely on other countries, especially in areas like defence, financial services and health care,” Kendall said in a speech at Bloomberg in January, when she announced £1 billion in funding to expand the UK’s AI research compute capacity by 20-fold.

The chip purchases would make the government a customer, not just a regulator, giving British firms guaranteed demand. Six UK companies have already gained access to government-funded supercomputers to advance their AI models, with the government retaining a right of first refusal for future investments. Fractile, a British inference chip startup that recently raised $220 million and is reportedly in talks with Anthropic, is among the firms the strategy aims to support.

The plans also respond to concerns about foreign dependency in government procurement. A recent parliamentary report warned that US firm Palantir should not play such a significant role in the UK public sector, and flagged a growing reliance on Microsoft and AWS. The HMRC’s £175 million AI contract with London-based Quantexa was an early signal of the government’s preference for domestic providers.

Whether strategic purchases alone can prevent the next Graphcore from being sold abroad remains an open question. Britain has the engineering talent and the research base. What it has lacked is the domestic demand and patient capital to keep companies scaling at home instead of selling to SoftBank or Qualcomm at the first serious offer.

It’s no longer coming to the PS5.

OpenAI plans to roll out a revamped version of ChatGPT in the coming weeks — one that will serve as a “super app” with coding tools and AI agents, according to the Financial Times.

The company’s goal is reportedly to become more competitive with Anthropic, particularly among business customers, and to get closer to profitability before an IPO. That means turning ChatGPT into a gateway leading free users to products they might actually pay for, such as coding product Codex. In fact, the FT quotes one senior OpenAI employee as declaring, “Chat is dead.”

Thibault Sottiaux, who leads OpenAI’s core product and platform, said the company is working towards a product “where you have your own personal agent that is capable of helping you … across everything in your life, be it personally or at work.”

If this sounds familiar, it’s because there have been reports about OpenAI’s super app ambitions since last year.

In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that these plans represent a major strategy shift for the company after launching a variety of standalone products in 2025; OpenAI executives now say they’re abandoning “side quests” like video generator Sora.

I love testing new apps on my iPhone. Every year, new apps get installed and removed, with very few sticking around for the long haul. Despite my habit of testing and switching apps regularly, some have stuck around, which is a testament to their quality. 

These are also the most used apps on my iPhone and the first ones I install whenever I set up a new iPhone from scratch. Here are 5 iPhone apps I cannot live without in 2026. 

Arc Search: browse smarter, not harder

Arc Search is a mobile browser that has completely changed how I search on iPhone. As soon as you launch the app, you’re greeted with a search bar and a keyboard, ready to go. I use the browser app on my iPhone for quick searches, which makes it perfect for that. 

The standout feature here is the built-in ad blocker. It automatically blocks trackers on any website, providing me with a clean browsing experience. 

Another feature I love is the Browse for Me. I type a query and hit Browse for Me, and Arc pulls the top results from the web and gives me a clean, summarized answer. Think of it as skipping dozens of tabs’ worth of reading in one shot. It works really well for things like sports stats, quick recipes, and travel recommendations.

The tab switcher is also a joy to use. Tabs appear in a card layout similar to the iOS app switcher, and you can swipe to close them just as easily. If you want a fast, smart browser that gets out of your way, Arc Search is the one to beat.

Get Arc Search

Craft: the notes app that keeps up with you

My life revolves around three note-taking apps. Apple Notes is for storing quick notes, Obsidian is for my knowledge-work notes, and Craft is for everything else. On my iPhone, I use Apple Notes and the Crafts app the most. 

What makes it stand out from other note-taking apps is how good it feels to use. The writing experience is smooth, the documents look great, and the app has enough depth to handle everything from quick daily notes to full project planning.

Craft lets you organize everything with folders, spaces, and tags, so you can create whatever structure works for you. You can also embed tasks directly in your documents, making it easier to keep your ideas and to-do list in the same place. 

The app also recently added a Kanban feature, making it perfect for tracking tasks in a project. I also love how the app looks. Its use of colors, templates, and fluid animations makes it a joy to use. 

Get Craft

Apple Reminders: the task manager hiding in plain sight

Most people skip Apple Reminders in favor of fancier apps, and I totally understand why. For a long time, I did the same. But Apple has quietly turned Reminders into one of the most capable task managers on the iPhone, and I’ve been using it as my daily driver for a while now.

You can create time-based and location-based reminders, and even message-based reminders that ping you when you’re texting a specific contact. Smart lists let you create custom views of your tasks using filters like tags, priority, and due date. 

You can also share reminder lists with others, add sub-tasks, attach photos, and even use Siri to add tasks with your voice. All of this, and it’s completely free. If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, you should definitely give this a try before paying for a third-party task manager. 

Pocket Casts: the best podcast app, full stop

I have tested most podcast apps on the App Store, including Apple’s own offering, and Pocket Casts is the only one I always come back to. It features a clean interface, excellent playback controls, and it syncs your listening progress and your queue across all your devices. 

The filters tab lets you create playlists based on your own rules, and you can even use Siri shortcuts with them. The discover section also does a solid job of helping you find new shows. 

It also offers a generous free tier. If you listen to podcasts regularly, Pocket Casts is worth every penny.

Get Pocket Casts

Delta: your childhood game console, on your iPhone

If you grew up playing Nintendo games, you are going to love this one. Delta is a free game emulator on the App Store that supports NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS games. It’s polished, well-maintained, and incredibly easy to use.

You get save states, fast forward, cheat code support, and the option to connect a game controller for a proper gaming experience. Delta is perfect for people like me who sneak in a quick game while waiting for a coffee order or standing in a queue. And for those stolen moments, it delivers more fun than any other gaming app on the iPhone.

Get Delta

I love all these apps on my iPhone, and if you have never tried them before, you should definitely check them out. Also, if you haven’t read it, check out my favorite Mac utilities article to discover some awesome apps for your Mac.

Public sector

Years into a major IT overhaul, MPs say the department still lacks reliable view of what is happening across the asylum system

The UK’s long-running asylum IT overhaul may finally have put the 25-year-old Case Information Database (CID) out to pasture, but Parliament says that officials are still relying on spreadsheets and disconnected systems to keep track of asylum cases. 

A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found asylum data remains scattered across multiple systems, making it difficult for officials to track cases, spot emerging backlogs, or understand where pressure is building across the wider system.

As of December last year, the Home Office was still heavily dependent on CID, a decommissioned platform dating back to the turn of the century, while attempting to move asylum operations onto Atlas. The PAC’s findings suggest the migration has not solved a more familiar government IT problem: getting different systems to share information.

The committee said that there is still “no single, reliable view of cases across the asylum system.” While the Home Office told MPs it has now fully moved to Atlas for asylum case management, officials noted that the transition has been complex, involving legacy data migration, functional improvements, and staff training.

MPs also heard that some Home Office staff continue to maintain their own spreadsheets alongside official systems. The committee warned this can leave multiple versions of the same information in circulation and contribute to ongoing data quality problems.

One of the bigger gaps sits between the Home Office and HM Courts & Tribunals Service. The two are working to link their case management systems, but MPs said current data-sharing arrangements still make it impossible to follow an individual case through the entire asylum process.

The report also echoes earlier National Audit Office findings that a reliable single record for each asylum seeker is still unavailable. Information on issues such as repeat appeals and absconders remains incomplete, inconsistent, or unavailable, while MPs said officials struggled to provide some key figures with confidence.

The committee concluded that departments still lack the integrated data needed to understand how people move through the asylum system or whether attempts to fix one bottleneck are simply creating another elsewhere.

What’s more, without reliable data, MPs said that they cannot properly assess whether the asylum system is improving or whether taxpayers are getting value for money.

“Departments still lack integrated, system-wide data and agreed performance measures needed to manage the asylum system effectively,” the PAC report states. “Until these gaps are addressed, senior leaders cannot fully understand where pressures are building or assess whether interventions are working as intended, and Parliament cannot obtain robust assurance on progress or value for money.”

The old database may be on the way out, but MPs are not convinced the underlying data problems went with it. ®